1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a picture image recording device and more particularly to a device using a recording medium which permits setting a plurality of recording tracks apart from each other for recording separate picture image signals on each of them.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Proposals have been made for picture image recording devices of the type using a recording medium which permits setting a plurality of recording tracks apart from each other for separately recording signals of still picture images on each of the set tracks.
Since a recording device of this type serves for recording still picture images, its basic function is, for example, to record one picture image each time the camera is triggered. If it is only possible to record more than just one picture image with each trigger operation, the function of the device is not always satisfactory and is thus useful only for a limited range of purposes.
If a device of this type is made capable of continuously recording images on recording tracks as long as the camera trigger is held, it would be convenient for recording the images of a moving object such as recording for motion analysis or something like a so-called time-lapse filming. Such arrangement can be very advantageously usable, for example, for analyzing a golf swing, batting, a pitching motion and the like and, accordingly would find a wider range of applications by virtue or functional improvement.
On the other hand, the most advantageous point of the picture image recording device of this type lies in that, unlike a photographic camera that uses a silver salt film, it permits a number of advantageous operations. For example, when the recording medium has been recorded only halfway the record can be taken out and put on a suitable reproducing device for appreciation of just the recorded part as desired. Thereafter, the recording medium can be returned to the recording device and other picture images can be recorded on the rest of the recording medium. Or, with a fully recorded medium on the reproducing device, some of the recorded tracks may be erased by means of an eraser and then other picture images may be recorded as a replacement on the erased tracks.
For such usage, it is very important to provide some facility that permits an operator to accurately discern the difference between a recorded truck and a track not recorded. Without such discernment, if another picture image is recorded on the recorded track, two picture image signals would be mixed and a reproduced picture image would be hardly acceptable because, in the device of this type, it is extremely difficult to precisely align the heads of two picture image signals for synchronization and synchronism tends to be lost.
It is, therefore, highly advantageous for a device of this type to be provided with an arrangement to accurately discern between a recorded track and a track not recorded and to give a warning when a recording track on which recording is going to be made has been already recorded; or to automatically prohibit double recording on a recorded track; or, with a more advanced arrangement, to shift a recording head from one track to another track, when the track to be used for recording has been already recorded, either by mechanically shifting the head or by electrically shifting the head through change-over between head channels. Such an arrangement would automatically ensure that a recording is always made on an unrecorded track.
Furthermore, a device of this type requires a facility for indicating the number of recorded tracks. If such a device were directly to detect which of the tracks has been performed and to indicate the number of recorded tracks so detected, the device would have a complex structure. This would hinder an effort to make the device compact. In another conceivable arrangement, the recording medium may be placed in a cartridge; a code marking may be attached to a part of the housing thereof every time recording is made on a recording track; and then the number of recorded tracks may be indicated by detecting the code markings. This offers the advantage that the number of tracks recorded can be indicated even when the cartridge is taken out of the recording device halfway through a recording operation thereon and thereafter again be put in the device. However, this method is not completely satisfactory because it still unnecessarily complicates the structural arrangement and also might cause erroneous action when the device is reloaded with the cartridge.
As mentioned in the foregoing, the picture image recording device of the prior art still require improvement at various points.